ScottH247 wrote:
I'm a Christian, but I have some rather difficult questions about God, that I have no answer for. I'm completely stummped. I figured I'd just put them in one post.
[1] God is all loving. But, I'm curious. If this is the case, why does He command such things in the Old Testament? He commands the deaths of many people, talks about how much to sell a slave for, how to \"deflower\" virgins, and many other things.
[2] Why did God command people in the Old Testament to kill others, when God could have done it Himself, as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah? Why did He command the deaths of others at all?
[3] Why does God command Abraham to kill his son, then stop him just as he's about to do it? That seems cruel.
[4] Why did God trust fallible man with His Word, when He must have known it would undergo many different, and, perhaps, fallible translations?
[5] If the eternal fate of our souls hangs in the balance, why doesn't God make it perfectly clear to humanity that He is the Only True God, and Jesus Christ is His Son?
Sorry for the series of questions, but I feel like I need some answers. Thanks and God Bless.
[1] Much of the Old Testament concerns the Israelites and how God chooses them and sets them apart from the other nations. God chooses these people in view of salvation history that comes to fulfillment with Christ. Many of the laws, while seeming harsh today, kept the Israelites free from pagan defilements. Other laws were to maintain the integrity of Israel, which depended on the recognition and following of God. The people that God commanded to be destroyed (e.g. the Amalekites) initiated the problems. For example, while the Israelites were still in the desert, the Amalekites came out and attacked them. Scriptural guidances on things we might think strange today--e.g. how to \\"deflower\\" a virgin--actually would have made sense back then. There are several examples which would suggest the Canaanites had perverse sexual rituals: e.g. \\"A woman must not offer herself to an animal, to have intercourse with it. This would be a foul thing.\\" (Lev 18:23) A verse shortly thereafter suggests this was the norm amongst the Canaanites: \\"For all these hateful things were done by the people who inhabited this land before you.\\" (v. 27)
[2] The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was in direct response to their sins, including inhospitality. They offered direct abuse to God, and the destruction of the two towns was to serve as a enduring sign. Solomon in Wisdom writes of \\"fire raining down on the Five Cities in witness against whose evil ways a desolate land still smokes, where shrubs bear fruit that never ripens, and where, monument to an ubelieving soul, there stands a pillar of salt.\\" (Wisdom 10:6) From a Scriptural standpoint, the actions of God are quite frequently undertook by the angels. This is seen in the Old Testament whenever angels are sent to do the will of God. Elisha opens the eyes of a servant to see a heavenly host of chariots around him. In the New Testament, God deigned the angels to minister to Christ in the wilderness, and to be the ministers of the seven seals.
[3] Cruel by what standard? Child sacrifice was practiced in Caananite culture (children were burnt as offerings to Molech). God already promised to Abraham in Gen 17:19 that He would make an everlasting Covenant with Abraham\'s son Isaac, and would bless Isaac\'s descendants. Abraham believed this promise. He may not have understood why God was seemingly asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, but he trusted in God\'s promise (which would be null if Isaac were sacrificed/dead)
[4] God entrusted the Church with spreading the Gospel. The Scriptures are the true, inspired Word of God, their place in the Church, in the Liturgy, and preserved and interpreted through the Holy Spirit. More the case than not, it\'s the people who interpret rather than the translations themselves that are the source of the problem. Those who interpret from outside the Church and without recourse to Tradition, often distort the true meaning of Scripture.
[5] He did make this clear by sending his Son, made Incarnate, who died for our sake; and God, who sent the gift of the Holy Spirit to testify of this reality. If one does not believe in the Gospel, in the death and resurrection of Christ, mystically celebrated each Sunday in the Eucharistic celebration that Christ Himself instituted, what else would lead one to believe?
